Bob Mayville writes:
>My apologies.  I didn't realize Ingraham was returning.  I was impressed with
>him during the NCAA Finals.  Tardif and Latendresse don't make proven goal
>scorers in my book.  If they do it this year without the cast from last year,
>I'll be a believer.  Kariya will only be there for the first half of the season.
>While his contributions will be significant, his departure for the Olympics
>will also be significant.  Plus, who will replace Montgomery's leadership?
 
I read the post that started this a few days ago and just got around
to being able to answer it.  To me, the key point is that Maine loses
so many players from every area of their team.  No one expects them to
come close to duplicating what happened last year.  But when comparing
what Maine has now with what some of the other HE teams have, Maine
appears to be in a rebuilding mode this season.
 
Tardif and Latendresse are outstanding players and would have starred
for nearly any other team last year.  Latendresse is still relatively
unknown but I believe him to be one of the more talented players in
HE.  Ingraham will not duplicate his season of last year (how could he
be expected to with the two best players in college hockey last year
gone from his line), but he'll still be an important player.  This
year could bring him more personal satisfaction if he's able to put
together a good season, since teams will likely be watching him more
closely than they did last year.  I would like nothing more than to
see him earn the All-America spot he didn't get last year, but it
won't be easy.
 
The biggest loss is absolutely Snow and Dunham together.  Despite the
firepower of the forwards, there were a number of games last year that
Maine would have lost if Dunham or Snow had not been there.  I still
think a lot of people tended to write off their performances because
of the strength of the team in front of them, but they deserved every
accolade they received.  For example, the 4-2 win by Maine at
Merrimack in February...if not for the goaltending, Merrimack would
have handed the Black Bears their second loss.  The third period of
that game was similar to what I saw happen several times - Merrimack
surprisingly dominated Maine pretty heavily, but nothing other than
goaltending allowed Maine to come out on top.  Now, consider that this
season, not only will the goaltender probably not be as good (hard to
fill the skates of two All-Americas), but the team in front of him
is also, overall, unproven and not as good.
 
>So, with Ingraham returning, instead of predicting Maine to finish 4th, maybe
>they should be predicted to finish 3rd or 4th.
 
I'll stick with my prediction of 4th, but I'll qualify that by saying
that if some of the weaker teams from 92-93 are able to put it
together (BC, PC), then Maine will be fighting for home ice.  BU, UNH,
and UML all just have too much for the other 5 teams in the league.
None of those 3 suffered anything close to the losses Maine did, and
they all are reported to have great freshman classes entering.
 
I forget who said it (Brian Morris?), but the line about Maine going
with the youngsters early on and hoping they gel together by the time
the playoffs roll around - that's the way I see it.  Kariya will
provide a lot of leadership, but he won't be there all the way, so
some of the others will have to step up in that area.  One of the
things that allowed last year's team to stay focused was the abundance
of leaders, but most of those are gone now.
 
This is the legacy of having such an outstanding team - huge losses to
the pros, Olympics, and graduation.  It's not unusual.  Time will tell
if Maine will be back at the top even next season...I can't make such
a prediction without seeing how their recruits and the redshirts from
92-93 will play.  But the history of Maine and Walsh seem to indicate
that it won't be too long.
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Mike Machnik           [log in to unmask]          [log in to unmask]
Cabletron Systems, Inc.                                  *HMN* 11/13/93